EBay's PayPal Payments Going Offline With Point Of Sale Product

eBay's PayPal unit has been a big driver of the company's growth as the company has retooled its marketplaces unit. Now PayPal is not just going after online and mobile payments, it's also targeting offline "point of sale" transactions with merchants.

By the end of the year, PayPal will be testing point of sale integration with a major U.S. brick and mortar retailer, John Donahoe, CEO of eBay said in a quarterly earnings call Tuesday. In 2012, PayPal expects up to 20 national retailers using its point of sale service.

"We're in a strong position in online payments to expand to point of sale," Donohoe said. "We intend to help retailers grow offline in the same way we helped merchants grow online."

Donohoe cautioned that this is a slower business to grow than online sales, but he does expect it to grow.

The move is part of eBay's larger vision of a new retail world where offline and online commerce blur together.

"In this new retail world, consumers expect a seamless experience across physical stores, mobile, laptops or any Internet-connected device," Donohoe said. "In this new world, physical stores become just another point of access. Location alone is not enough. It's not an advantage."

As part of that vision, in December eBay spent $75 million to acquire Milo.com, a start-up that provides local product inventory search for consumers at local businesses. In January eBay launched Milo Fetch, a service for small and medium-sized merchants to share their inventory in real-time online.